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WCON
WCON, virtual and UHF digital channel 16, is a New Line Network-affiliated television station serving Cleveland, Ohio, United States. The station is owned by State Street Broadcasting. WCON maintains studio facilities located at 11050 Memphis Avenue (near Interstate 71) in Brooklyn, and its transmitter is located off of State Road (near Ridgewood Drive) in Parma. History The station first signed on the air on May 10, 1971 as WKBN (standing for 'K'aiser 'B'roadcasting 'N'ew Line). From the beginning, the station's main studio facility has been based in the suburb of Brooklyn. It was also one of Kaiser's few network-affiliated stations, most of it's other stations were independents. Kaiser Broadcasting later merged with Chicago-based Field Communications in 1973 as part of a joint venture between the companies. In 1977, Kaiser sold its interest in the stations to Field, making Field the sole owner of WKBN, making channel 16 Field's first station affiliated with what had just become a major network. Field later put its stations up for sale in 1982, and WKBN was sold to the Chesapeake Television Corporation (the predecessor to today's Sinclair Broadcast Group) in 1983. By this point, however, channel 16 began becoming embroiled by deep financial problems. It barely registered as a blip in the Cleveland-area ratings, drawing only a 2.5 share. Its line of credit was yanked, and it was unable to meet daily expenses. The newly-renamed Sinclair Broadcast Group decided to sell WKBN to New Line Stations in late 1986 after O&O station caps had been lifted earlier that year. This made channel 16 a New Line owned-and-operated station and the callsign was changed to WCON to reflect this. Channel 16 still had financial problems, and just two years later, in 1988, WCON's news programming was cut to a single weeknights-only 15-minute newscast at 10 PM. New Line, in pilot form, began adding WCON newscasts on March 8, 1993, with the half-hour The 5:30 Report in the early evening, which was followed by the continued simulcast of New Line Evening News from Chicago sister station WCNL; and the 90-minute primetime newscast Cleveland Tonight in the 10 PM hour and Cleveland Final at 11 PM. WCON continued to use the Field Communications-style station branding and logo until it was sold to New Line, and afterwards continued using the Field Communications "16" until a 1997 logo redesign. On December 22, 2007, New Line sold WCON and five other owned-and-operated stations—KHWL in Honolulu; WVIK in Evansville, Indiana; KNLO in Oklahoma City, KNLU in Salt Lake City and WNMW in Milwaukee—to Troy, Michigan-based State Street Broadcasting; the sale was finalized on July 14, 2008. On February 1, 2012, WCON launched a new, separate website, using a new WordPress-hosted design implemented months earlier by sister station WGPR-TV. Website history * wcon.newline.com (1996-2000) * newline16cleveland.com (2000-2006) * news.newlinenetwork.com/cleveland (2006-2012) * newline16.com (2012-present) Slogan history * "In Cleveland, The Choice Is Yours, On Channel 16!" (1977-1983) * "16 Stands for You." (1989-1992; localized version of New Line ad campaign) * "Cleveland's Favorites Are on 16!" (1992-1994; localized version of New Line ad campaign) * "16. Personalized." (1994-2000; localized version of New Line ad campaign launched after acquisition by Turner Broadcasting) * "New Line 16. Personalized." (2000-2001; localized version of New Line ad campaign) * "New Line 16's Got the Hits!" (2001-2007; localized version of New Line ad campaign) * "Cleveland's Network is New Line 16." (2007-2012; localized version of New Line ad campaign) * "Cleveland Turns Here." (2012-present) Ownership history * Kaiser Broadcasting (1971-1977) * Field Communications (1977-1983) * Chesapeake Television Corporation (1983-1985) * Sinclair Broadcast Group (1985-1986) * New Line Stations (1986-2008) * State Street Broadcasting (2008-present) News operation WCON presently broadcasts 24½ hours of locally produced newscasts each week (with 4½ hours on weekdays and an hour each on Saturdays and Sundays). In addition to its main news department in Cleveland, the station also operates a news bureau at the Ohio State Capitol in Columbus. The early-evening newscast on WCON and other New Line sister stations were reduced to a half-hour on October 2, 2000, to eventually make room for the hybrid local-national news program New Line Live by 2002, before it expanded back to an hour on January 9, 2006, in turn cutting New Line Live to 30 minutes. News theme history * November 1, 1998-2008: Magnum (V.1, V.2, V.3) (615 Music) Digital television Digital channels The station's digital channel is multiplexed: Analog-to-digital conversion WCON permanently shut down its analog signal on UHF channel 16 on June 12, 2009, the official date in which full-power television stations in the United States transitioned from analog to digital broadcasts under federal mandate, and moved digital broadcasts from UHF channel 54, among the high-band UHF channels (52-69) that were removed from broadcasting after the transition, to the former UHF channel 16 analog position. Cable coverage in Canada The station is available over-the-air to Kingsville, Leamington, and Pelee Island, and was once one of several Cleveland stations carried on local cable providers in those three locations until 2000 when Cogeco displaced Shaw Cable as the cable provider for Essex County. On October 16, 2009, the Windsor Star had notified readers that digital subchannels of the Detroit and Toledo stations would be added, while the Cleveland stations (such as WCON) and some Toledo stations would have to be dropped from the listings to make room for them, starting with the next issue of the TV Times, released the next day. Category:Channel 16 Category:Cleveland, OH Category:Ohio Category:New Line Network affiliates Category:State Street Broadcasting Category:Television stations established in 1971 Category:Former owned-and-operated stations